August 16, 2010

Namco, the owner of the Pacman game, has sent a letter complaining that a kid has recreated the game using Scratch. Scratch it's a programming language based on Squeak for kids. Namco is complaining to the kid, that everyone can play Pacman for free. It's evident that if a kid could reproduce their patents or the playability using Scratch then they're commercially useless. We need to review our copyrights laws, this is absurd. Here is the letter.

Google has acquired Java products, technology, business, and the company’s Eclipse team from Instantiations for an undisclosed amount. Mike Taylor, the CEO of Instantiations, explained in his letter to the customers that he will continue as president and CEO of the new Smalltalk-focused Instantiations.

“In brief, we have entered into an agreement with Google in which they have purchased our highly regarded Java products, technology, and business. Our VA Smalltalk business, products, personnel…and commitment…continue independent and uninterrupted, except that now the new Instantiations (yes, we kept the name) will focus exclusively on Smalltalk!
This may be the most significant news our VA Smalltalk community has experienced since Instantiations and IBM joined forces in 2005--a relationship that remains strong and unchanged as we move forward.”

Indeed, “Our plan is to leverage some of the money we’ve all made in the Google transaction” to keep the Smalltalk business rolling, Taylor said. However, “our Smalltalk business is showing significant revenue growth year-over-year since we got it,” he added. The business has been profitable and self-sustaining, he said.

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Since 2004, ClubSmalltalk is a non-profit organization which congregates Smalltalk programmers and enthusiastics. The big idea behind this website is to provide a source of information about Smalltalk in general.
The Smalltalk community has not good sources of information, or they're all over the net, and sometimes it's difficult to find them.
If you want to contribute, you're welcome!